'The WORD' - 'A democratic socialist paper'

by Brian Bamford

LAST night, JOHN Wilkins of the group 'Building Our Local Democracy' (BOLD) sent Northern Voices a pdf form of No.22 of 'THE WORD' - 'Britain's First Democratic Socialist Newspaper'.  It is a rare specimen, in so far as it is a British leftist paper that manages to cover politics with a sense of humour.

THE current June issue of THE WORD No.22  includes coverage of the controversal Jeremy Corbyn interview with Laura Kuenssberg, who attacked the Party’s tax agenda as ‘the politics of envy'.  Elsewhere in the paper (on page 32), it is claimed that Corbyn has been a victim of 'media bias':

David Dimbleby is quoted:

'I don’t think anyone could say that Corbyn has had a fair deal at the hands of the press, in a way that the Labour party did when it was more to the centre, but then we generally have a rightwing press.'

He also suggested the 'Labour leader has more support among the public than he does among the parliamentary Labour party.'

Then on  page 27 THE WORD reprints a post from this Northern Voices' Blog entitled 'Noam Chomsky on Labour', which was an exchange between me and Trevor Hoyle essentially abassaout the reasons for the lack of popularity and political sex appeal of the Labour Party.

On pages 16 and 17 there is an interview by Mara Levenskuhn with George Galloway an independent candidate in Gorton, Manchester, who says that he is the read Labour candidate.   THE WORD reports here that since an earlier interview taken on May15th, Sweden has withdrawn the accusations against Assange, 'making it more obvious that what George Galloway said here about Assange’s case is true and fair'. 

Mr. Galloway responds to a question thus:   'One accusation I keep stumbling against is your so called sexism.  I would like to clear this out for the socialist readers. I BELIEVE SEXISM AND AND IDENTITY POLITICS IS FREQUENTLY USED AS A WEAPON AGAINST DISSIDENTS, SO I’D LIKE TO CLEAR THIS MISCONCEPTION FOR THE “WORD” READERSHIP.'

Page 36 has a report on the 'Miners Pension Scheme' by Leslie Moore, ex Hatfeld Main Colliery (Yorkshire),

Other pages cover Food Banks; Dementia; UK citizens fighting in Syria; Homeless Votes; Privtising Royal Mail;  recipies on 'Baked River Trout on new potatoes and cherry tomatoes with anchovy rub'.

Most interestingly THE WORD has republished an article by Les May originally on this N.V. Blog entitled 'IN ROCHDALE, A LACK ON CURIOUSITY AT THE TOP?'   This last piece has been somewhat ignored by the rest of the local media in Rochdale.  

www.thewordmedia.org.uk/  

 http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/baffling-ballot-box-probe.html